Sometimes, it is nice to take a break from your current genealogy research project and try something a little different. Writing a family history story is a fun way to put some of the facts that you have gathered into a larger context and preserve information about the life and times of one or more of your ancestors. Wait, what’s that you say? You say that you can not write a family history story because you are not a good writer? That is okay. You do not have to be a published author, or anything close to that, in order to write a family history story.
How do you do it, then? The first thing that you can do is to get rid of the idea that since you are not much of a “writer”, you cannot write your family history. You can. In fact, you are uniquely qualified for the task in that you have done all the research and you know the information inside and out.
Once you have decided that you are going to write your family history, the next step is to decide which ancestors to write about. You could trace a single line of ancestry back a few generations or you could include just a little information about each person on your entire pedigree chart. Perhaps you would like to write an in depth biography about just one ancestor, or a couple whom you find particularly interesting.
Next, make an outline for the book. Making an outline before you are writing will help you keep your writing organized and flowing logically. It can also serve as a table of contents for the book. An outline also helps to break the larger task of writing a book into smaller, more manageable pieces. Once you have your outline, begin writing. It does not have to be perfect. You can edit it later. The important thing is to begin, before you can talk yourself out of it again.
Photo by cohdra on morguefile.com.